The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

According to the publication 0629, local residents are being forced to share their flats with fighters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic ‘army’. Such cases are reported in Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and several other cities under the control of the DPR.

The publication reports that last Saturday an announcement appeared on a number of apartment blocks signed by the ‘Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic’. People are ‘asked’ to “voluntarily provide accommodation for fighters and commandeers, provide them with everything needed, including office equipment and telephone communications.”

0629.com says that a resident of Kramatorg, Iryna told them that people have already ‘moved’ into some homes. “Almost all of them are from outside, not locals. They force people to put either one, or three – four people up, depending on the size of the flat and how many people live there. They claim that they’re fighting for us while we’re sitting in our homes, they have to help”.

The announcement phrases this ‘help’ rather differently, warning that “any attempts at forced resistance will be crushed according to the laws of wartime.”

The publication reports that in Luhansk members of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic threw students out of the East Ukrainian National University hostel.